ArtPlantae: Hickey & King Review

Marien, Tania. 2002. Member book review. Southern California Botanical Artist. May. Vol. 1(2): 5. (Reprinted with permission)

Hickey, Michael and Clive King. 2000. The Cambridge Illustrated Glossary of Botanical Terms. Cambridge University Press. ISBN: 0-521-79080-8 (hardback). ISBN: 0-521-79401-3 (paperback).

We all know that being able to draw our plant subjects as accurately as possible is critical in our line of work. Most of us have at least one glossary of plant terminology in our libraries (e.g., Plant Identification Terminology - An Illustrated Glossary by James G. Harris & Melinda Woolf Harris; click here). Harris & Harris' book is invaluable when trying to decipher detailed information about your specimen. In situations like this, we are presented with the terminology first and an illustration second. But what do you do if you only have your plant specimen in front of you and you want to know what in the world you are looking at?

You turn to Hickey & King's illustrated glossary. That's right, descriptive illustrations get top billing in this book. Most of this book is dedicated to labeled illustrations. A glossary of botanical terminology is provided for you to decipher unfamiliar terms. The illustrations in this book are very helpful, as is the way they are organized. You will be pleased to find the illustrations organized in the following way: Roots, Storage Organs and Vegetative Reproduction; Seeds and Seedlings; Growth and Life Forms; General Features of Flowering Plants; Plant Featuers and Responses; Leaf-like Structures & Other Vegetative Features; Leaves; Hairs and Scales; Floral Features; Flower Structures; Features of Certain Plant Families; Fruits; Conifers and Conifer Allies; Ferns and Fern Allies.

The authors of this book express their hope "that readers at all levels of understanding, both amateur and professional, will find (this book) helpful in their chosen area of study, especially plant science, horticulture, field studies and botanical illustration." The authors have succeeded at creating a very helpful reference. In fact, I recommend that beginning botanical artists purchase Hickey & King's book first and then Harris & Harris' book after they become more comfortable with botanical terminology.